The President of the Government, Pedro Sanchezhas already approved 81 tax increases and contributions since coming to power in June 2018. However, the socialist leader’s expansionary budgetary policy has not ended. And the Spanish executive proposed to carry out 46 other measurements collections over the next year 2025, thus giving a boost to businesses and citizens. This is what emerges from the report Fiscal populism prepared by the Juan de Mariana Institute and made public this Thursday.
However, the measures already approved are not the only ones to have caused an increase collectionsince Sánchez refused to deflate taxes (to adapt them to CPI rise to prevent people who earn less from moving beyond the next section of the Income taxfor example) despite the accumulation of a increase in inflation 19% during his mandate.
“At present, under the government of Pedro Sánchez, between 2019 and 2023, measures have been adopted tax increases value 9.625 millionas well as increases in contributions estimated at 26.115 million. To these figures we must add the increase in income due to inflation, which has led to a hidden increase in taxation for the value of 27.1 billion» explains the organization.
According to the Juan de Mariana Institute, the new measures aim to “further raise the tax pressure supported by businesses and families. And just this week, the PSOE agreed with its partner Sumar to introduce amendments to the new law that taxes multinationals with the aim of increasing taxes. bank taxesAt tourist apartmentsluxury products, sociimi or at private health care.
These measures will impact not only the accounts of companies and families, but also their contributions (and therefore the economy investors, many of them small). So, last Tuesday, the Merlin’s Actions (a socimi) fell by 7.3% in reaction to the agreement between the PSOE and Sumar, and those of Colonial 5%.
Sánchez’s tax increases
However, the measures agreed between the executive parties still need to be approved. In this sense, the Juan de Mariana Institute is optimistic: “The precarious parliamentary arithmetic on which the government is based makes it difficult to predict which of these measures will ultimately come into force.” However, whether they are approved or not, their effects are already being felt in the Ibex 35which lost more than 200 points in a single day on Tuesday.
On the other hand, the organization indicates that the tax reductions have not at all compensated for the 81 tax collection measures: “Although the Government has approved certain modifications to reduce certain taxes, in most cases , it is simply a matter of specific bonusesas we saw with VAT or the Tax on Hydrocarbons following the inflationary crisis. In net terms, for every euro spent on tax relief measures, 3.4 euros of increased tax collection were adopted, which translates into a very negative balance for taxpayers.
In addition, the rush to collect has had a particular impact on families: “The nearly 42 billion euros cumulative tax and contribution increases from 2019 to 2023 are equivalent to around 2,200 euros per household. In 2019, 11 collection measures were adopted, followed by 12 in 2020, 20 in 2021, 10 in 2022 and 17 in 2023. In the current fiscal year 2024, 11 upward changes to taxes and contributions were adopted. encrypted.
This made Spain “the third country in the European Union to have increased its tax burden the most since Pedro Sánchez came to power, in 2018, until 2023 last year”. “He the increase was 2.9 points of GDPwhich contrasts sharply with the reduction of 0.8 percent observed in the EU-27″, denounces the Juan de Mariana Institute.
“The government has attempted to justify its continued tax increases by pointing out that Brussels would have recommended to Spain a convergence of their collection levels with the recordings observed in the rest of the EU. In reality, the planned project tax harmonization It already appeared in the electoral program of the PSOE during the 2019 general elections, so it is not an imposition of the European Commission. Indeed, between the different levels of budgetary pressure in EU member countries, we observe differences of more than 25 points of GDP,” note the analysts.
“What Brussels needs is an effective policy of deficit control and the debt“, two flanks in which the Sánchez government has systematically failed, maintaining red figures that far exceed the budgetary stability objectives – and all this despite the very strong increase in taxes and contributions under Sánchez’s mandate”, they denounce .
